[LM_NET] Triple Crown books

[Dawn Sardes <yayagoddess@SBCGLOBAL.NET>]

I am in a public library, not a school.
   
  I am seeing so many young female, African American girls coming in asking for the 
VERY adult, urban, hip-hop culture books, mostly by Triple Crown, that glorify the 
pimp/thug/drug lifestyle.
   
  Stories are about sexually promiscuous females who become drug queens or 
prostitutes without consequences or fear. They are very violent and contain graphic 
sex.
   
  Girls as young as 6th & 7th graders come in and ask for the books.  I have no 
choice but to provide the books to them in my library because the Adult fiction 
department buys them for the African American collection.
   
  Titles from:
  Vicki Stringer (Dirty Red, Imagine This)
  Noir (G Spot, Candy-Licker, Thong on fire, Thug-a-licious)
  Zane (Sex Chronicles, Getting Buck wild,  Afterburn, caramel flava)
  Tanika Lynch (Whore)
  Deja King (I can't even write the title in this forum)
   
  My personal feeling is that we should not be buying this trash.  These books and 
authors are doing NOTHING to uplift the African-american race. They are cashing in 
and getting rich by appealing to the lowest element.  No different from the rap 
stars who depict women as "ho's" in their music.
   
  But, with circ stats driving the library world, public libraries have gone to a 
"give 'em what they want" mindset.  We do not purchase erotic fiction for white 
people, but we purchase this filth.
   
  Any child whose parent has allowed them to have an adult card can check out 
R-rated movies & this erotic fiction--and they do--in droves.  
   
  I am spending the month of May in the schools, promoting summer reading & 
booktalking.  All I'm hearing is teachers complain that these girls are reading 
this stuff and using them for book reports.  They are asking me to stop it but only 
mom and dad (if there is one) has that power.  The teachers are confiscating the 
books when they see them, calling parents, even driving them back to the library 
after school and returning them themselves but it is a losing battle.  
   
  They are approaching me about this problem as if it's my fault, asking me to "do 
something."  The books they confiscate have my library's barcode on them.
   
  In my library, when confronted by a young pre-pubescent asking for these books, I 
have gone and gotten it off the shelf and, if the mother is present, handed it to 
the mother with a stern warning about content.  Only once in the past few years 
have I had a mother blanch --usually they say, "Oh, it's all right, I know all 
about those books, I read them too."
   
  I want to say, "I see there's not much common sense going on in your house." But 
I don't want to get fired. I have student loans to pay.
   
  I am trying to fight this by buying African-American Teen Friendly urban fiction, 
like Drama High Series by L. Divine, Platinum Teen Series by authors Precious & 
Jewel, books by Rashonda Tate Billingsley; Jackie Hardrick's Imani books, and 
Connie Porter's Imani All mine.
   
  I have taken to telling these kids that the books are all checked out, or they 
are missing, but I can offer them similar books and then I steer them to my teen 
collection of African American titles.  
   
  Sometimes, I'm even telling the truth--the books ARE checked out or missing.
   
  Are any other schools out there experiencing this flow of erotic, urban fiction 
in the student population?
   
  What more can I do?  The parents are the ones who control whether the child gets 
an adult or children's library card.  99.9% of the time, they choose to check that 
adult box on the form so they can use their kids' cards as extensions of their own 
when their fines result in their account being blocked. I almost wish, sometimes, 
that some parent would challenge library policy (I didn't really say that, did I?).
   
  The Saturday before Mother's Day, I held a mother-teen daughter brunch to 
highlite and booktalk teen titles that moms and teen daughters could share.  I 
focused on African-American titles.  Despite the fact that 30 mostly 
African-American mom-daughter couples quickly signed up and filled this program, 
not one person bothered to show up despite reminder calls I made the two days 
before.  I stayed up all night baking and cooking and it all went to waste.
   
  Sad.
   
   
   
  Dawn.M.Sardes
  EPL
  Cleveland, OH
  yayagoddess@sbcglobal.net.omit.this.I'm.trying.to.hinder.the.email.gathering.bots
   
   

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